As The Crow Flies

For a toothbrush, I carry the lightest child’s size toothbrush I can find. I keep it in a plastic flip top sandwich bag. This ensures that it doesn’t get dirty, while in my ditty bag, and that it gets a little air so it doesn’t get moldy. I really miss toothpaste, when I don’t have it, so I carry a trial size tube.

I only use a little bit of toothpaste. A little bit of toothpaste does as good a job as a lot of toothpaste and I don’t have anything to spit out when I’m done — it’s considered bad form to leave toothpaste residue on the ground or on the leaves.

I have used the toothbrush/toothpaste/carrycase toothbrush. They work well and you can refill them but they are a little heavier.

I have tried the two piece ones that you connect together and wouldn’t recommend them. The brush section sometimes flings out of the handle section.

Note: The small tubes of toothpaste are often kept in the “travel size” section and not with the big tubes of toothpaste.

Ten years ago my camera was stolen and until this winter, I didn’t replace it. A camera is nice to have for blogging but for traveling and on the trail I find it too heavy and I think it encourages a person to objectify their experiences. Without a camera, when great sunsets are happening, you don’t think, “this will make a good picture,” you just sit back and enjoy it thoroughly.

On a trek in a jungle in Sumatra, a mother orangutan came down a tree with her baby wrapped around her, the guide gave me a banana as I was the only one without a camera in my hands, I handed the orangutan the banana, looked into her eyes and touched her hand. Over and over, I see people missing experiences by trying to capture them.

Five years ago, when I sold my house, I needed to get rid of all of my stuff. I looked through all the pictures I had, took out the ones of my son, sent them to him, and threw away the rest. Life is about now and you can never be in the now if you have to cart the past around with you.

My travels and hikes are not diminished by not having pictures; I think they are enhanced because not having a camera frees me up for experiencing the moment instead of trying to preserve it. In addition, my life is enhanced by not having to store bunches of pictures of the past.